OSCE ready to mediate Moldova -Transdniestria talks

April 08, 2014, 18:24 UTC+3VIENNA“The parties are ready to continue a dialogue on issues that complicate people’s life on both banks of the Dniester River,” OSCE special representative for Transdniestrian settlement says

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Peace keepers in Transdniestria (archive)

VIENNA, April 08. /ITAR-TASS/. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said it is ready to organise Moldova-Transdniestria talks, earlier scheduled to take place on April 10-11.

“We are now discussing a possible date of talks between Moldova and its breakaway region,” OSCE special representative for Transdniestrian settlement Radojko Bogojevic said on Tuesday.

“The parties are ready to continue a dialogue on issues that complicate people’s life on both banks of the Dniester River,” he said.

Earlier, Transdniestrian Foreign Minister Nina Shtanski said the 5+2 talks (Moldova, Transdniestria, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and observers from the EU and the US) would be cancelled over Moldova’s failure to keep its promises.

“Chisinau defaulted on its promises to cancel Tax Code rules that imposed excise duties on import from Transdniestrian producers. They are destructive for the region’s economy and put us in a situation where a constructive dialogue can hardly be imagined. We suggested postponing the talks to allow the Moldovan partners to focus on the resolution of the issue,” she said after a meeting with Moldovan Vice-Premier for Reintegration Yevgeny Karpov.

“There is no reason at this point to consider terminating the talks or withdrawing from them,” Shtanski said.

In February 2013, the Moldovan authorities promised to abolish the excise duties on Transdniestrian import within a month. But the Moldovan parliament failed to work out a resolution.

Karpov said parliamentarians were too busy. The issue will be considered this week, he added.

The Transdniestrian settlement talks in the 5+2 format ended inconclusively at the end of February 2006. Chisinau and Tiraspol managed to resume the dialogue with Russia’s assistance two years later at the level of political representatives. They gathered every month to resolve pressing problems of the population of Moldova and the breakaway republic. In March 2009, the negotiations were resumed again after the trilateral meeting of the presidents of Russia, Moldova and Transdniestria. At their meetings in Moscow and Vilnius late last year and in Dublin this year, the parties agreed to resume the talks.

The agenda of the 5+2 talks consists of three sets of issues: socioeconomic problems, humanitarian issues and human rights, and comprehensive settlement, including institutional, political and security issues.

The previous round of the 5+2 talks was held in Brussels in October of 2013. The next round on the Transdniestrian settlement process is due in Vienna on February 27 and 28.